International visitors flock to Ambiente 2016

Ambiente, the world’s leading trade fair for the consumer-goods industry, closed its doors on February 16 after welcoming more visitors and recording a further increase in the level of international participants on both the exhibitor and visitor sides.The United Kingdom will be the show’s partner country for 2017

“The whole world does business here at Ambiente. Frankfurt in February is where the trends are set for the international consumer-goods industry over the coming year. An impressive demonstration of this is to be seen in the good propensity to order and the high standard of German and international buyers. The economic signs are set to go”, said Braun, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt GmbH.

Confirming this, Dr Andreas Buske, CEO of Zwiesel Kristallglas, said, “The number of international visitors has risen yet again. In particular, we welcomed delegations, many of them including senior managers, from major trading houses. Also encouraging is the large number of buyers from the USA, despite the warning about travelling to Europe. Overall, the mood is good; visitors are willing to buy, committed and dedicated.”

For the first time, the proportion of visitors from outside Germany accounted for 55 percent of the total (2015: 53 percent) – more than ever before. The top ten visitor nations after Germany were Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, China, the USA, Switzerland, Turkey and South Korea.

The number of visitors from Germany remained stable while, with more than 6,000 visitors, an additional 500 buyers made their way from Italy, this year’s Partner Country, to Frankfurt. Above-average increases were also noted from Japan, South Korea, South America, Africa, the Middle East and countries bordering the Mediterranean.

Ambiente is a well-established order-placing exhibition for buyers from the worldwide contract business / hotel, restaurant and catering (HoReCa) sector. Confirming this, Andrea Täuber, Director International Sales, Schönwald, said, “Ambiente is nowadays indispensable, especially for international business. This is where you meet buyers from all over the world and make new contacts. At Ambiente, we always find visitors from our target group of hotels and food service. And it is the only fair that shows the latest table-top trends. Ambiente is a fixture on the trade-fair calendar.”

Speaking from the visitors’ perspective, Thomas Grothkopp, Director General of the German Association for Tableware, Housewares and Home Accessories (Bundesverband für den gedeckten Tisch, Hausrat und Wohnkultur e.V. – GPK), also gave the five-day fair a positive rating: “The German and large parts of the European retail trade came to Ambiente. The days in Frankfurt were certainly well spent because nowhere else can visitors find such a wide variety of suppliers for the entire spectrum of tableware, kitchenware, gift articles, home accessories, etc.” This was also documented by the stable high level of satisfaction (96 percent) expressed by visitors.

In a ceremony during Italy Day at Ambiente, Italy handed the Partner Country Globe to next year’s Partner Country, the United Kingdom. This year, renowned Italian design Paola Navone curated and designed ‘La dolce vita’, a wide-ranging presentation reflecting the broad spectrum of products offered by Italian Ambiente exhibitors. Additionally, there were a variety of activities and events revolving around the Partner Country. German-Italian actor Mario Adorf was the guest of honour on Italy Day and, during a tour of several exhibition halls – a ‘viaggio culinario’ – he was able to discover modern tableware and kitchenware design at its best.

Next year, Ambiente will be held from 10 to 14 February 2017 and spotlight British design.